World's Most Punctual Airlines in 2018

The OAG analysts tracked the performance of over 58 million flight records in 2018 to create a ranking of the best on-time performance (OTP) for the world’s largest airlines and airports.

Latin American airline Copa Airlines achieves the top spot with on-time performance of 89.79%. Copa Airlines takes the lead from airBaltic which drops into second place by a narrow margin due to a small decline in OTP for the Latvian airline.

Ranked fifth, Bangkok Airlines has seen a dramatic improvement in OTP which has risen from 77.58% last year to 87.16%.

Other airlines making significant year-on-year improvements, and therefore appearing among the Top 20 airlines this year, are LATAM Airlines Group, ranked 7th, and KLM, now ranked 10th. These airlines were ranked 36th and 30th last year, respectively.

Airlines for which OTP is moving in the other direction include Japan Airlines which falls to 13th place, down from 4th last year, with OTP of 83.99%.

Vueling, likely affected by French industrial action, is another airline where OTP has declined year-on-year so that last year’s 7th place has been replaced with a ranking of 63rd.

Top 20 Airlines by OTP

Rank

Coverage

Airline name

Code

OTP 2018

1

98.9%

Copa Airlines

CM

89.79%

2

84.9%

airBaltic

BT

89.17%

3

96.7%

Hong Kong Airlines

HX

88.11%

4

98.2%

Hawaiian Airlines

HA

87.52%

5

98.4%

Bangkok Airways

PG

87.16%

6

97.9%

Qantas Airways

QF

85.65%

7

90.7%

LATAM Airlines Group

LA

85.60%

8

99.0%

Azul

AD

85.21%

9

90.8%

Qatar Airways

QR

85.17%

10

99.1%

KLM

KL

84.52%

11

89.6%

All Nippon Airways

NH

84.43%

12

94.4%

Jetstar Asia

3K

84.13%

13

97.6%

Japan Airlines

JL

83.99%

14

97.0%

Air Astana

KC

83.52%

15

99.2%

Singapore Airlines

SQ

83.46%

16

99.5%

Delta Air Lines

DL

83.08%

17

82.0%

Iberia

IB

83.04%

18

98.9%

Solaseed

6J

82.90%

19

82.8%

Mango

JE

82.88%

20

99.4%

Alitalia

AZ

82.87%

Top Airlines - Mega Category

Among the world’s largest airlines, the LATAM Airlines Group has achieved the highest OTP with 85.60% of flights reported as on-time. The airline takes first place, up from its ranking of 8th place in the previous Punctuality League.

US LCC Southwest has moved ahead of its mainline US rivals United Airlines and American Airlines with OTP of 78.20%.

Each of the three major Chinese carriers has seen a positive improvement in OTP after a collective focus by the Chinese Civil Aviation Authority (CAAC) on improving OTP: China Southern has moved from 64.19% to 71.52%; China Eastern has moved from 61.80% to 70.62%; and, Air China has improved from 60.14% to 68.84%.

In contrast, both SAS and Lufthansa have seen a drop in OTP and corresponding falls in their ranking.